Cod Almighty | Diary

There it goes

29 August 2019

Middle-Aged Diary's most vivid memory of Bury is from November 2008. If you were there, you will remember it as well. It was the day Town won their first League game since March. Most of what I remember is in our match report, except the personal stuff, the stuff that integrates football into our friendships, our families and our lives.

I had gone with Miles and my son George: it may have been only the second Town game I took him to, and his eyes were shining as it reached its crescendo. Before, we'd had a drink with another friend, Joe, a Bury fan. George was eight, at an age to want to assert his independence from his dad. As Joe, Miles and I traded light-hearted expectations of what was to come, he portentously announced: "I've not quite decided what team I want to win."

At half-time, Town 2-0 up, Joe texted Miles to ask if George had decided who he was supporting yet. The answer: "He thinks he'll support Grimsby."

Joe responded: "If Bury carry on playing like this, I might support Grimsby as well." There are times when all you can do is enjoy not enjoying the match.

For now, even that consolation has been taken away from Joe and thousands of other Bury fans. I have no doubt there'll be another Bury, a Bury who will race back up the pyramid, but there can be no illusions that it won't need hard work as well as love. In the meantime, we are all diminished.

As with any bereavement, there is the invidious need to move beyond expressions of regret and sort out the practical impact on the lives that will go on. Following Bury's expulsion from the Football League, only three teams will be relegated from the third flight. Four teams will be promoted from the fourth but the chances are that only one team will be relegated.

That is how it is usually done, and it will mean that Town, along with other fourth division teams, can breathe a little easier. But it is done badly. There would be less temptation for clubs to spend money they do not have if they knew they had better than a gambler's chance of getting out of the Conference.

Let's change the subject. Harry Clifton has been included in the Wales under-21 squad for their Euro qualifiers against Belgium and Germany on 6 and 10 September. It means that even if he recovers from the injuries that have recently restricted his Town appearances, he'll miss the League Cup tie with Macclesfield, rearranged for the latter of those dates.

The winner of that game will play Chelsea away. No doubt that is a plum draw which has many fans almost as excited as the club accountants. This week of all weeks, though, it is impossible to reflect that the club fuelled by a Russian oligarch and TV revenues is the prime symbol of a sport which – on the flipside of its glossy, global reach – neglects and endangers Bury, Bolton and many more. I'd much prefer to be looking forward to another game against Bury, and a pre-match pint with Miles, George and Joe.